With the Central government giving clearance for opening places of worship, Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy Devasthanam in Vemulawada is being readied for opening from June 8.
The temple was closed from April first week following the implementation of lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19, as places of worship witness heavy crowds. However, the temple authorities ensured that regular religious rituals were held during the period. The puja rituals were also webcast online for the benefit of pilgrims, which got a good response.
The Devasthanam authorities will allow limited number of devotees and have made it mandatory for all pilgrims to wear face masks and sanitise their hands before entering the temple. In order to maintain social distancing norms, the authorities have marked boxes to ensure at least one-and-a-half metre distance between each devotee in the queue lines.
Physical distancing has to be followed in all the queue lines for general darshan, special darshan, VIP darshan, regular Kode Mokku and special Kode Mokku etc. The authorities are yet to take a decision on allowing devotees into the main temple premises for performing special pujas such as Abhishekham, Anna puja, Rudrabhishekam etc.
Presently, it has been decided to allow only ‘laghu’ darshan at the temple to avoid crowding. There would be only one entry and exit point for smooth passage of the devotees. On normal days, the temple sees around 10,000 devotees and on Mondays, it would cross 50,000 pilgrims.
On tonsuring of hair by devotees at the ‘kalyanakatta’, the authorities are awaiting the government’s directives. The temple authorities estimated that the devasthanam had lost over ₹ 70 crore revenue during the lockdown period, which would have accrued by way of donations made by devotees in the hundi and sale of various puja and prasadam tickets.
